OLYMPICS: Six early wins in the Winter Games

Tuesday

Feb 13, 2018 at 2:00 PMFeb 13, 2018 at 2:56 PM

Alice Coyle acoyle@wickedlocal.com @accoyleWL

We're only a few days into the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and right out of the gate we’ve witnessed historic firsts, inspiring comebacks, overcoming setbacks, and team unity among the athletes competing in PyeongChang, South Korea. Here are five highlights from the first weekend of winter Olympic events.

1. Red hot on snow. Teen snowboarder Redmond “Red” Gerard was the first U.S. athlete to medal in PyeongChang, grabbing the gold in the men’s slopestyle event in comeback fashion. At just 17, Gerard is the youngest U.S. snowboarder to win an Olympic medal and the youngest snowboarder from any nation to take the gold.

2. Oops, she did it again! Red Gerard may have been the first American to medal and the youngest snowboarder to win gold in the games, but California snowboarding sensation Chloe Kim was right behind him. The 17-year-old soared past the competition in the snowboard halfpipe event, earning a massive score of 93.75 and her first Olympic gold medal.

3. Going for gold. In a quest for its first Olympic gold medal since the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan, the U.S. Women’s Hockey team got off to a strong start defeating Finland 3-1 in round 1 and shutting out the Olympic Athletes from Russia 5-0 Tuesday. The 2-0 team, which includes locals Kali Flanagan of Burlington and team captain Meghan Duggan of Danvers, takes on the also undefeated team Canada Thursday.

4. Triple threat. U.S. figure skater Mirai Nagasu became the first woman to land a triple axel in the Olympics. She did so during the Team Figure Skating event, helping the U.S. win the bronze medal, behind the Olympic Athletes from Russia (silver) and Canadian team, which won gold. Nagasu is only the second woman to successfully complete the move in competition; the first was Tonya Harding.

5. Down but not out. Norwegian cross-country skier Simen Hegstad Kruger made an epic comeback in the men’s 30 km skiathlon. Taken down in a violent collision with two Russian athletes at the start of the race, Kruger fell to 24th place but didn’t quit. He raced his way back to the front of the pack, erasing a mountainous deficit to take the lead at the 25 km mark, and win his first Olympic gold medal.

6. An electric slide. Chris Mazder made Olympic history Sunday when he became the first American to win a medal in the men’s single luge event. More hardware could be coming for the U.S. team with Mazder also competing in the luge team relay event Feb. 15.